This is extremely exciting news! Karen Olivo,who most of you know, is a graduate of Polk County’s Harrison School for the Arts and went on to perform on Broadway in “Rent”, “Brooklyn”, “In The Heights and won a Tony in 2009 for her role as Anita in “West Side Story” on Broadway….has recently been cast as Angelica Scyuyler in the Chicago company of “HAMILTON”, the Tony award winning musical that has taken Broadway by storm this past year.

Performances begin in previews on September 27 the show is open ended with tickets presently available through March 2017 at the PrivateBank Theatre in Chicago. Her co-stars will include Miguel Cervantes as Hamilton, whose Broadway credits include “If/Then”, “American Idiot” and the national touring company of “25th Putnam County Spelling Bee” and Alexander Gemignani as King George III. Gemangi starred as Jean Valjean in the 2006 revival of “Les Miz”, and performed in Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins”, “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunday in the Park with George”, all on Broadway.

Karen’s character in “HAMILTON”, Angelica Scyuler is the sassy, witty, and flirtatious sister of Hamilton’s wife. Sources say that Angelica is the more interesting, complex character in both the musical and the historical record who had a loving friendship with Alexander Hamilton as well as other leading men of the era. The actress who is starring on Broadway in the role recently won a Tony Award.

Karen, and “HAMILTON” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda are longtime friends and collaborators. She created the role of Vanessa both on and off-Broadway in Miranda’s Tony-winning “In the Heights.”

Several years ago Karen moved to Madison, Wisconsin where she lives with her husband, James Uphoff whom she met in the theatre world in New York. Her time in Madison has included teaching musical theater performance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, working on a CD and doing some writing for a theater company called Theater Lila and making pottery. She is however, taking a little detour this summer to Salzburg, Austria where she is recreating her role as Anita in “West Side Story” for the Opera Salzburg Festival Summer 2016…. and then on to Chicago. In addition she has appeared on Kennedy Center Honors in a tribute to Rita Moreno who portrayed the role of Anita in the movie version of “West Side Story”, and Karen has come home to her roots to perform for Polk County audiences both at Harrison School for the Arts and All Saints Academy. Karen’s father, Rick Olivo, is a prolific working artist and teacher at Rick Olivo Studios in Lakeland.

About This Blog

I was thrilled to be asked by The Ledger to become its first theatre blogger. Already writing preview articles about Polk County’s community theatres and feature articles for Inside Polk Magazine, I thought blogging uk essay writing service would be fun and fulfill a need for the community.

I have long been on a soap box about the abundance of available local entertainment. When someone complains that there is not much to do culturally in Polk County, I am not shy about telling them that they just aren’t looking. So I am thrilled to be able to let the buy papers online local community know, via my blog, about all the wonderful and varied theatrical venues and performances that are available in Polk County, sometimes in very surprising places.